Dungeons and dragging people together at D&D Club

Oswego High School has a lot of different clubs and activities that go primarily unnoticed by the average student. 

Dungeons & Dragons, typically shortened to D&D, is the most popular tabletop roleplaying game or TTRPG. The game consists of a little bit of math, a lot of imagination, and a group of like-minded gamers. 

When playing D&D, knowing and being friendly with the other members of the party is crucial to everyone’s enjoyment of the story and game. It’s one of the many reasons it is quite hard to get into D&D in the first place. Luckily, Oswego High School’s D&D club makes it a lot easier to find a group of people who share your interest in playing the game. 

“It’s so much of a learning experience for all of us, even me, who is pretty experienced like I learn new stuff everyday,” Freshman Roman Berger says. Berger describes himself as the second-most experienced member of the D&D club.

D&D club is completely open to all, regardless of experience level. There are quite a few members, like Berger, willing to help others learn to share their love of the game. 

“I’ve noticed over time, people get more and more into character, especially with roleplay-focused campaigns,” junior Phoenix Goldstein says, who, like Berger, had prior experience with the game when he joined the club. 

The character-focused nature of D&D Goldstien refers to involves each player creating their own characters with unique classes, races, and personalities. Players then roleplay as those characters in a fictional world created by the Dungeon Master, or DM. 

This can be the scariest part of D&D for incoming players. Some campaigns are very roleplay centric, which means you play and act fully as the character you have created. It is quite unnerving if no one else is participating, but when others are willing to try, it elevates the experience of the whole group.

“I feel like more people should know about it- [D&D] only got popular because of things like ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘Critical Role’,” Goldstien says. 

D&D club is every Friday in room 257 from 2:30p.m. to 4:30p.m. New students are welcome to walk in and join but due to the group nature of Dungeons & Dragons it might be difficult to start a new campaign immediately. However, you are welcome to shadow current plates to help you learn rules and you would be more than welcome to start in the next campaign.  In some cases, current members may introduce you into on-going campaigns.

“I feel like you should give playing a shot. It’s a lot more fun than the media makes it seem.” Goldstien says